THE FAMILY of murdered Frenchwoman Sophie Toscan du Plantier, who arrived in Cork yesterday, say they hope they will finally get justice for their daughter with the opening of a new investigation into her death by French authorities.
The 39-year-old film executive’s badly beaten body was found two days before Christmas 1996 in a laneway leading to her remote holiday home at Toormore outside Schull, in west Cork. Nobody has ever been charged with the death of the mother-of-one despite the launch of one of the biggest murder investigations in the history of the State.
Toscan du Plantier’s elderly parents, Georges and Marguerite Bouniol, arrived at Cork airport yesterday evening on their annual anniversary pilgrimage to the place of their daughter’s death.
Now both in their 80s, the couple are still determined to find justice for their daughter and are hopeful this might finally be a possibility with the opening of a fresh France-based inquiry.
“We hope for justice. We hope we will know how our daughter died,” the couple said.
An application from the Department of Justice for permission to hand over the Garda case file on the murder was approved at Dublin District Court two weeks ago. The file was received last Tuesday by the French investigation team, which is being led by Paris-based magistrate Patrick Gachon.
At Cork airport yesterday, Ms Bouniol said: “It is with pleasure that we come to Ireland every year because we like the country and we know our daughter liked the country, but also it is very hard for us especially when it comes to the night she was murdered.”
She said the family now understood the reason the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) in Ireland could not arrest the suspect in their daughter’s murder was because he “did not have enough evidence”. “This is why we expect more in France where the law is different,” said Mr Bouniol.
Ms Bouniol explained that until now the DPP did not have to give a reason for taking a decision not to proceed with a prosecution. In October, DPP James Hamilton announced, in a major policy change, that he is to disclose reasons behind the non-prosecution of deaths caused by crime to those closely connected with victims from now on.
However, the new policy will not apply to Toscan du Plantier as her death was prior to the decision being made.
A frail Ms Bouniol said the family get tired of fighting for justice for their daughter without any results. However, there had been two positive steps forward in the last year – the DPP’s policy change and the sending of the Garda file to the French investigation team.
“We will be able to consult the file through our solicitors, which we could not do in Ireland,” she said.
Ms Bouniol said she felt that the family had made a lot of progress in the past year as a result of the Sophie Toscan du Plantier Truth Association which was set up by her brother, Sophie’s uncle Jean- Pierre Gazeau.
“For 11 years there was nothing forward . . . We hope there will be something forward from now because the president of the association will not let it go.”
She said they hoped they might “see or learn things” from a fresh analysis of the Garda file .
Mr and Ms Bouniol have made the journey to west Cork almost every December for the past 12 years to mark the anniversary of her death on December 23rd but this year, for the first time, they are holding an all-night candlelit vigil at the spot where she died.
The truth association will hold a press conference in Cork next Monday at which they will thank supporters for their assistance.
